Information on housing UAH

My son is a sophomore at UAH and having a wonderful experience. He is an Aerospace major and is very active with the Space Hardware Club. I just want to share information on housing. He has lived in Frank Franz Hall and Charger Village. Both have been good experiences. I expect him to have a good experience next year but he is assigned to an off campus apartment complex about 5 miles from campus. The apartments are furnished and do have RAs. There is no shuttle to campus. Luckily, he has a car. He does have a scholarship that pays for housing but not necessarily on campus housing.

Hummmm, this is interesting. My DD was just awarded housing (Freshman Fall 2018) and it absolutely never occurred to me that at some point in time, that the housing would be off campus. We are about 1000 miles away, I wonder if that will play into the assignments down the road as she does not drive and will be flying in/out to attend.

5 miles from campus would bug me, I want my kid on campus, immersed in college life, not in an apt. across town.
Is your son doing some sort of Co-Op this semester? Did the school offer up an explanation?

They just don’t have the space on campus. Students with Charger Excellence scholarships got space on campus in Southeast. His scholarship covered the off campus UAH housing. He is not doing co-op but is working on a Space Hardware Club project for competition this summer. He has been too busy to pursue a co-op! All the experience he is getting will help when he is ready. We live in SC so I don’t think the distance from home mattered.

@Mothertotwo I’m confused when you say “Students with Charger Excellence scholarships got space on campus in in Southeast. His scholarship covered the off campus UAH housing”

The Charger Excellence Scholarship covers four years of housing; there is not one housing scholarship that covers on-campus and a different housing scholarship that covers off-campus. There is just one type of scholarship that covers housing. I know UAH wanted to house all housing scholarship students on campus; I’m assuming they were not able to do so because of space and put some of those students off-campus.

My sophomore son has the housing scholarship as well and got a spot in Southeast. Students’ assigned time for room choice registration (step 3) depends on when they registered for step 1 (stating that they want housing for the fall and agreeing to the contract). Those that do step 1 as soon as it opens will receive an earlier time for step 3 than those who wait awhile to do step 1.

Those students that got assigned off-campus apartments but wanted on-campus can be put on a wait-list and possibly gain a spot with the inevitable movement that occurs with transfers out, deciding not to attend etc.

In addition, I know that UAH bought property across the street on Sparkman with the intention of using some of it to build upperclass on-campus apartments. Don’t know their time frame, but that may help students that are just starting at UAH.

My son has the Platinum Scholarship from being a NMF. They said that the money for his scholarship came from a different source than the Charger Excellence. We both talked to housing and the financial aid office prior to selection. He may go on the waitlist for SE but the idea of being in a nice apartment with a friend is looking pretty good to him.

Good to know they bought more property for housing.

Ahhh–didn’t realize that. Interesting.
Yes, unless off-campus is a problem transportatilon-wise, many students like the apartments. They also have an RA there for them as well as their own maintenance people I believe.

@Mothertotwo Two thanks for the clarification - My DD’s award letter just stated housing for 8 semesters. She received the Charger Excellence.

My DD actually wants to be an RA down the road so no idea how that will play into all this as well. For now, I will remind her to make sure she is prompt with step one as @gertyberty pointed out.

DD is also Honors College, any idea how that might affect things as well? We took care of her housing deposit a few weeks ago along with the application etc.

When we were there in November for a visit, the new housing units were under construction and we were told they were for upper class levels, are these already full as well?

@Mothertotwo My DS spent a year in dorms, then a year in a shared apartment off campus then 3 years in various housing arrangements around campus. Each one had its pro’s and con’s but overall they were all great learning experiences. The one difference was when my DS went to college, all his housing was within walking distance of his university campus.

My son is in honors, too. He enjoyed living in Frank Franz Hall last year and we were thrilled to move in a day early to Charger Village. Honors also helps with registering for classes. I know nothing about being an RA. Maybe others do. I believe the new Charger Village Space is filled with sophomores next year so that there is more space in other dorms for freshman. Yeah, it is funny that they kept Charger Excellence students on campus and not my son. But it looks like he will be with a friend as a roommate in a nice apartment. I am sure the UAH students at the apartment form a community.

We are very pleased our son is at UAH.

If your student participates in Greek Life, he or she may be able to live in the fraternity/sorority house for the year. My son is currently a senior. After a miscommunication with prospective roommates left him without housing at Charger Village, he got to move into his fraternity’s house, and really likes it. Shares a bath with another brother. They have laundry and a kitchen. Also, living there saved him abut $400 a semester. Just a thought.

Can someone please tell me which dorm houses the engineering students? I’ve looked at the UAH website but may have overlooked this. The more we know about UAH the more we think this is where our son will end up. He has the Charger Distinction so no housiing, I’m afraid. He’s also in the Honors College so could live in FFH. I’d like to go ahead and take care of the contract and deposits this weekend just in case he decides this is the one.

The Honors College has a Living/Learning housing community group, I am not sure if engineering has one as well. My DD went with the Honors College LLC for her Freshman year, the app is pretty simple and the deposit was $125
If memory serves, you have to delve into the application to see the communities and I don’t think there were many.
Call housing, they are helpful

Thank you @SnowflakeDogMom . When we visited, DS said he’d want to live in the Honors LLC so maybe he already knew there wasn’t a specified Engineering LLC.

DD is planning Honors for the first year as she felt it was a good place to start. She will be on campus all years due to her scholarship so I’m sure she’ll explore different options as the years go by. The dorms are amazing and she is getting excited for the next phase of education.